The Pagemasters Vol. 1 Chapter 4
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Author: Literataku
Chapter 4:
I Even Exist
I stared blankly at the colorful bird perched on the computer screen. Even after talking about magic with a computer screen, watching a library start to collapse as all the books came to life and some great blackness stealing away all the words from my mind, I still haven’t lost my common sense. Yet.
“How~?”
“I’m a Pagemaster that retired thirty years ago. I’m not allowed to interfere in YOUR job outside of teaching ye how to do it. So my spirit is emplaced in this body so I can give you good and proper aid while not babying you like a half-grown little pansy.”
I nodded slightly, looking down apologetically as I received his bereavements and scathing rebukes.
“When I saw the five of you out there I was wondering what the ol’ gal was thinking but I never though’ ye would be daft enough to try and create a world before I could even tell ye what was going on. Much less drop it on our heads.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Well, we can set this all well and good easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy. What world did ye summon boy?”
I look up, hoping that perhaps there was an easy way to fix this. “Ummm… Fantasy.”
“Which one?”
“Just… Fantasy.”
He looked at me in horror and my heart faltered. “Ye mean to say…. Ye didn’t pick any one world… Ye picked every blooming one of them? Do ye know how many fantasy worlds stories are out there! Ye just gone and unleashed everything out in one big ol’ world. This is worse than Atlantis finding out… This is… this is…”
He slumped down with a sigh. “We need to get ye trained as fast as possibl’ the entire world is in deep trouble. All those conflicting worlds and tales, The world will collapse on itself if we don’t stop it. And the Silence… The Word won’t be able to hold it back.”
“What is the Silence and The Word?”
“The Silence, is evil in its utmost and complete form. The end of all things, the antithesis of reason and thought and form. It’s not even chaos, because Chaos has its own rhyme and flow. It is nothing, a blackness that houses a desire to be nothing. It will destroy all it touches if it is allowed free reign, but first, it has to destroy The Word to do such a thing, but that is nigh-impossible.
“The Word. There is only one way to explain it. ‘In the Beginning, there was The Word, and The Word was God. And The Word was with God.’”
“So the Silence is the Anti-God?”
Clarion laughs. “Hah, that’s a good one… It wishes it had such power. An Anti-God…. He is simply nothing.”
Ruffling his feathers Clarion looks straight at me. “But it doesn’t mean he isn’t a threat to us mortals. He’s out to make sure that as many of us as he can succumb to Silence instead of heeding to the Power of The Word.”
“So what are we supposed to do about that?”
“We are the guardians of The Word. To ensure that no matter what the world will not forget what strength our greatest weapon is against the Silence. Knowledge. Learning. Imagination. Without these, man is nothing but animals without hope for better futures.
“We protect the stories, the strength, and the foundation of our lives. In exchange, we can use The Word’s power to instill ourselves with the strength to fight the Silence. Use words to their fullest meaning to stretch beyond ordinary boundaries.
“And in exchange, we can venture into other worlds of our creation to train and practice. And even to enjoy ourselves getting lost in a book almost literally. Though right now, the books are all getting lost in our world. Or what is left of it.” He makes a noise which I guess was him clearing his little bird throat.
“We can discuss more later. This darkness is getting me agitated and I would enjoy not starting to molt from stress though y’ve certainly given me plenty of it. Now. Stand up and let’s fix the problem.”
I climbed unsteadily to my feet, a sore backside thanking and reprimanding me for sitting so long inside that chair. The light from the screen wasn’t enough to properly see anything by, I was quite thankful that there was a floor to even stand on.
“Take a deep breath and focus ye-self. I want ye to picture a spellcasting item. Wand, staff, amulet. Whatever ye wish to make it look like.”
I close my eyes and picture a simple staff for spell casting.
“Now, make sure that ye also picture the proper size of everything about ye implement. The less abstract the better. Focus and bring it to life in ye mind, hold out ye hand and make like ye are trying to grasp it in reality.”
I nodded without opening my eyes, picturing the length and width of the staff in comparison to myself holding out my hand reaching out and trying to feel as if I could touch the smooth silvery-blue staff. I jump for a second as I feel metal actually in the palm of my hand and open my eyes.
“Well done. Well done.” I could hear the smile in his voice as Clarion watched me summon my first staff.
It was fairly simple if a bit wobbly, parts of the staff were bigger or smaller but overall it was holding its shape quite well. I could tell for myself that there were still flaws in its creation. “Being able to summon a staff with so few problems is quite an achievement for a first try. Soon ye will be able to make it perfect in a split second.”
“Am I stuck with just this design?”
“Not at all. Ye can redesign and mold it al to ye whims in how ye want it to look. In fact, I’m also impressed ye didn’t try for some fancy do-dad like a gun wand.”
“After everything else going wrong I didn’t want to have something blow up in my face.”
Clarion laughed and nodded his head slightly. “Now then let’s get this darkness cleared away and see what we have to work on training for ye. The words are quite simple.” He uttered the words and I felt a little silly that I hadn’t thought of the answer to this before summoning him. Perhaps if I had been a little more patient with myself, I would have figured it all out on my own.
I tried the spell but my wand merely sputtered and shone for a brief second. “Just have to try a little harder, just like how you summoned the staff. Ye need to focus and let the magic flow through it, not ye body. Y’re just sending ye own mana willy-nilly.”
I nod, trying to focus, closing my eyes and begin channeling the magic through the wand, at least trying to, imagining pushing something through my arm into the staff. “Stop stop! Ye are trying to force it and it’s just going to break something’ if ye keep going at it like that. Channeling ye mana through ye body needs to come naturally. Trying to do it the other way will just get ye… well think of it like trying to stuff a bottle of soda with more soda,”
I’m not sure how to picture that except that the bottle would explode and shudder at the idea of my hand flying away from my arm like a bottle rocket of shaken soda. “So.. naturally?”
“Aye. Picture a river flowing inside ye, yer mana just swims around and around like yer blood, ye skin is the dam that keeps it all inside of you.the space where you wand and hand met, I want ye to imagine opening the gates right there and letting the river start to flow in that direction get used to letting it flow use yer instincts on how much or little ye should provide.”
I listen to his words, starting to get a feel of the magic inside me flowing softly, letting it flow into the wand as I released the floodgates between my palm and the cool metal, watching it glow and slowly gain strength as I continued to add magic power feeling it starting to warm up. Clarion fluttered his wings almost clapping. “Much better. Much better. We’ve got some ways to go but we will make ye a Pagemaster yet. Now, cast that spell and give us purchase from this gloom and doom shadow.”
Raising my staff as I poured a little more magic into it, just to be sure, I moved the chair aside and waggled the long staff with a distinct cry of victory.
“Let there be Light!” And then there was light.
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